Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps admitted he did not know the name of the top Tory in a key council election battleground – just a day after mocking Labour leader Ed Miliband for making the same gaffe.

Mr Shapps said he was sure that the leader of Swindon Council was “a great guy” but it was “hard to keep track” of the party’s council leaders because there were so many.

His inability to name David Rennard was all the more embarrassing after he used his official Twitter account yesterday to join ridicule of Mr Miliband for failing to identify the leader of the Labour group there.

“When in a hole stop digging Ed...worst interview ever,” read a message he re-tweeted to 7,000-plus followers after the Labour leader’s on-air slip-up during a campaign visit to the Wiltshire town.